578 



The Review of Reviews. 



December 1, ISK. 



sorrow. I feel deeply that in Milan, I should finil such a 

 friend. Write to him to come, that we as friends may help 

 each other to bear bravely the load of our destinies. 



What a spectacle I Abdul Hamid and Milan of 

 Servia as the David and Jonathan of a scoiBng 

 world, whose verdict would have been " Arcades 

 amhfl" 



—AND " A GOOD EUROPEAN. • 



M. Mijatovitch thinks the Sultan is a good 

 European : — 



If Europe understood rishtly the true situation, ft would 

 request Abdul-Hamid to put himself at the head of the 

 Pan-Islamic movement, and by his own statesmanlike aViili- 

 ties, and his conciliatory character, try to make it a force 

 not necessaril.v hostile to Christian interests. Abdul-Hamid 

 is more capable than any other living Mohammedan to 

 understand that, after all, the best Pan-Islamic policy 

 would be to cultivate the best possible and truly friendly 

 relations with the Christian nations. 



Hum ! 



THE PAPAL AGGRESSION IN FRANCE. 



In the Fortnightly Review Mr. Robert Dell, writing 

 on this subject, puts very clearly the present acute 

 religious crisis in France, but, I gather, takes a 

 pessimistic view of its being hopefully solved. The 

 inference many will draw from his article is that 

 either the Pope is purblind to many modern ten- 

 ijencies, or he is being extraordinarily badly advised. 

 In the French Ultramontane press of late it is con- 

 stantly asserted by bishops that the will of the Pope 

 is the will of God " absolutely and with no restric- 

 tion." Authorised organs even declare that the Pope 

 has a divine and immutable right to ratify or refuse 

 to ratify civil legislation — "the Deposing Power" 

 that is, applied to modern conditions, and even such 

 men as M. Brunetiere and the Viscount de Vogiie 

 apparently accept these principles. 



As for the demonstration of English Catholics to 

 be held, it is stated, shortly in London to bring 

 about an entente cordialc between them and the 

 French Clericals, Mr. Dell says nothing could better 

 show that both parties stand aloof from the general 

 life of their respective nations. The Clericals have 

 been the consistent enemies of England, and have 

 done all in their power to prevent the present good 

 understanding between her and France. If any- 

 one's interests are served, it will be those of the 

 German Emperor. Every Government, and ours as 

 well as the rest, must take into account the fact 

 that — 



for the nresent Pope, the claim to the Deposing Power is 

 no mere shadowy theory, and the supremacy of the Church 

 over the State is an inviolable principle to be enforced at 

 all costs, .\lready the Pope is attempting to enforce that 

 principle in Spain, and is involved in a dispute with the 

 Spanish Government merely because the latter has taken 

 one more step in the direction of complete religious tolera- 

 tion which, in Spain as in all countries where the official 

 Church retains any real power, is still far from beini: 

 realised. 



The present policy of the Vatican — that it is 

 better to lose everv country to the faith than to 



abate one jot or tittle of the claims- of Rome — is 

 an old policy, and that which has lost it the East, 

 England, Germany, and now France. 



THE ASSOCIATIONS CULTTJELLES. 

 C)f the assocatwns ailiuclles so much is likely soon 

 to be heard, that I quote Mr. Dehs clear statement 

 exactly defining what they are: — 



The fi'isociation cuituelle is merely an association decUtree 

 under the Law of July 1st, 1901, which has tor its sole 

 object the practice of a religion (Veiercice d'un culte); its 

 area is that of the old ecclesiastical district, and it can 

 be formed by any seven, fifteen, or twenty-five persons, ac- 

 cording to the population of the commune; it must draw 

 up a balance-sheet and inventory of its properly annually, 

 and present its accounts to a general meeting of members 

 at least once a year. Outside these provisions, the n^^octa- 

 tiotis cultifdles are left perfectly free to impose what condi- 

 tions of membership they please, and to make their own 

 constitutions and rules. 



The Pope's recent refusal of the request of nearly 

 two-thirds of the French bishops to be allowed to 

 form such associations on the model of the Arch- 

 bishop of Besancon was due to his obstinate notions 

 of rigid absolutism and was virtually an attack on 

 the autonomy of the French state. 



A PUPPET IN THE HANDS OF THE GERMAN 



EMPEROR. 



The Pope, without knowing it, is a puppet in the hands 



of the German Emperor, and the wires of the Vatican are 



pulled by much more astute hands than those of Cardinal 



Vives y Tuto and Cardinal Merry del Val. 



There is a close understanding betyveen the Vati- 

 can and Berlin, highly desirable for the latter, con- 

 sidering that the Centre Party holds the balance of 

 power in the Reichstag, and that the designs on 

 Austria and the Netherlands, with which the writer 

 credits the Kaiser, make him still more dependent 

 on Ultramontane support. 



THE DARK FUTURE. 



The law of France must be enforced, and the 

 writer hopes that catastrophe may be averted. In 

 any case, the responsibility rests on Pius X. and his 

 advisers, " who have incited him to do a greater 

 injury to the French Church than its worst enemies 

 crruld have hoped for in their most optimistic 

 moments.'' Mr. Dell, I notice, considers " ap- 

 palling " the extent to ^vhich the Church has lost its 

 hold on the French people. 



I wish (he says) I could believe th.at any considerable 

 body of French Catholics were prepared to save the re- 

 ligion of France even without the consent of the Pope, but 

 i cannot be so optimistic. It is most improbable that as- 

 sociations of Catholics will he formed in more than a very 

 few pla-ces unless the Pope relents. 



The Pope, in fact, has ordered the Bishops ; .• 

 " organise religious worship," and forbidden them 

 all means of doing so. 



Writing: in CnsseWs 'ilaqiizUte for September on 

 Women Humorists, Mr. J. Cuming Walters takes for 

 his subjects the writings of George Eliot. Miss Con- 

 stance Naden, Miss Ellen Thornevcroft Fowler, and 

 others. 



